On my day off...

[Drzook]

I had scheduled today off due to some Christmas program I thought my son was in but turns out that was for a different grade. Good thing I didn't cancel, because we are in a really bad blizzard that doesn't seem to be letting up. So what's a guy to do? Like any red-blooded flightsimmer I fired up FS2004, set the weather to realistic and tried to fly VFR in it. My first flight was with a Hawk 200 from my sister's place in Kalkaska to my local airport in Jenison. Most of the flight went great until I got to about 2000' ASL, then I got whiteout conditions. Using the GPS I lined up for a landing at Riverview and crashed in the Grand River less than a quarter mile from the runway. Three flights later where I took off with the Hawk in whiteout conditions circled around and crashing in various places in Grandville and the Grand River I decided to try in something less demanding--an Aviat Husky. On the first try I landed just right of the runway and ended my roll on it.
These are really deplorable conditions---in real life I wouldn't even think of getting in a plane if the weather was like this but that's the beauty of FS9--I can get away with it for the most part.
Here's a couple screenies--thought I would share.

[Drzook]

After finding out is is possible (in theory) to land a plane in blizzard conditions I went right back with the Hawk. Crashed only once. Next time I had to go around several times but I got it lined up; went into the soup and landed right next to the runway (thank goodness for that trailing link landing gear). Of course I pulled up to the hangar and at that point the snow stopped, which prompted me to look out my window...sure enough it stopped for real (at least for now).

[OBIO]

Yesterday we had winds up to 60 mph here in Mansfield, OH. I wanted to have some fun in those "gentle breezes", so I flew (or attempted to flew) a number of aircraft...using FSMetars to pull down real weather settings. The "funnest" flights were in the UH-1 Huey....that poor helo was getting blown around like a butterfly in a hurricane. Some of my take offs turned into crashes in short order....bi-planes really catch heck in high winds and will tip over on ya real quick like.

Yep, I am glad that FS9 lets me live through each and every crash.

OBIO

[awj112]

Well you know what they say about landings...

FS2004 just gives you a wider variety.